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July 20, 2015

Savvy Naturalista Polishes [Swatch] & [Review]

Hey everyone! Welcome to a new week!

I want to first apologize for being a bit MIA at the end of last week! To be honest, sometimes the work involved in swatching, photographing, post-production, writing blog posts, social media, ect., can become a bit of a grind, and it often doesn't leave me a whole lot of time for anything else! So, I just needed a bit of a sanity break! I know posting regularity and scheduling is important, but nail polish is, first and foremost, an enjoyable hobby (and not the only one!) for me- one which I do not get paid to do. So, I really think breaks are important in order to avoid burn-out. :)

Anyway, today I'm excited to share three polishes from new indie brand Savvy Naturalista! Savvy Naturalista is run by the wonderful Shundara, and is all about natural, handcrafted products like sugar scrubs, body creams, soaps- and yes, most importantly, nail polish!

This brand is new to me, but when Shundara asked me to swatch a few polishes, I had to say yes because, well, you'll see!

These are so pretty in the bottles, no?! Well, let's get to it, shall we?

First, here is Savvy Naturalista- Blue This Way:

Blue This Way is a medium, purple-leaning blue base filled with fuchsia and purple shimmer as well as tiny holo microglitter. The tone of blue of the base is almost a dark periwinkle type of blue. Pretty! And, the shimmer definitely makes the polish appear to lean to the purple side!

I have to be upfront and admit right away that this one, being sort of a periwinkle shimmer, appealed to me instantly the most. And, it's my favorite of these three in the end!

Artificial light, two coats:

Up close:

It's beautiful! I wore this one for a couple of days, actually, and it was so nice- it wore well too!

Formula: Nice pigmentation, great medium viscosity, and it smooths on the nail easily! Very forgiving and workable formula: super nice, opaque in two coats! A+!
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Next, this one is Savvy Naturalista- Moon Cosmic Blast 2.0:

Moon Cosmic Blast 2.0 is a medium blue jelly base filled with sparse metallic blue/ holographic hexes and squares, a matrix of holo shimmer, as well as tiny blue/metallic microglitter. There are also some short, holo bar glitters to be seen in the bottle, but they are very sparse, and I only managed to get one out onto the nail.

Artificial light, three coats:

Up close:

If you like blue jelly mixes, you'll probably love this one!

Formula:
The texture is very nice, but the jelly base is quite sheer. It dries down quickly and applies really nicely, though. Three coats had some VNL, but it's a pretty squishy kind of look, so I left it there. (And, if you have longer nail beds than I do, it will definitely be more opaque on you at three coats.)
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Last for today, Savvy Naturalista- Let the Green Thumbs Roll:

First of all, the NAME! Hilarious and cute!

Let the Green Thumbs Roll is a cool-toned green jelly base with metallic/ holo fuchsia and blue hexagonal glitters, as well as small holographic hexes.

Artificial light, three coats:

Up close:

Formula: It's sheer since it's a jelly base, and has a thinner viscosity. It goes on the nail easily, self-levels, and you get a decent amount of glitter out on your brush naturally. Not glitter-bomb levels of glitter, but enough. It clings to itself really nicely, and builds well. Two coats had slight VNL, so you could leave it there for an even squishier look, but I decided to see what full opacity looked like, and used a third coat.

(I did set this one upside down for a day prior to swatching since I noticed a lot of the glitters were a little bit distributed more toward the bottom of the bottle.)
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Overall, I think this is a really strong debut from a new indie! Aesthetically, I think these polishes are well put-together. It's certainly subjective, but a lot of indies make the mistake of over-complicating glitter mixes, and throwing in too many different shapes/ sizes/ colors. Savvy Naturalista certainly has not done that, and I really appreciate that they are interesting shades, but not too busy and still cohesive!

Execution-wise, they are all pretty nice! Two of the three are on the sheer side, but they are jelly-based, so that is to be expected. Blue This Way has an excellent, pigmented formula- wouldn't change a thing about it!

My minor criticisms (which I even hesitate to mention because the actual polish is so nice) is mostly just packaging related. The label really obscures what's in the bottle, and I think that could be refined a bit in the future. The brush is actually really nice though- "fluffy" but not too big- and the bottles do hold the expected .5oz. One other thing was that Let the Green Thumbs Roll had a bit of a sinking glitter issue, but it's nothing that keeping it upside don't won't remedy, and in the end I did like the density that I was able to get on my nails!

(A couple of her shades are even on sale at the moment for $4, so do check it out!)

Wow I was immediately drawn to blue this way because who doesn't love a good periwinkle. Overall I would buy every single shade. This is definitely an improvement since the blues clues duo release from her.